Saturday, August 12, 2017

Youth Bands Increasingly Terrorizing Russian Regions

Paul
Goble

Staunton, August 11 – Despite the
Putin regime’s massive police presence – Russia now has more police per capita
than any other country in the world – youth gangs are killing, raping and
attacking representatives of the authorities across the country, unfazed by any
threat of arrest or imprisonment.

These groups, observers say, are
formed by young criminals who are attracted by their romantic view of crime and
who see themselves as musketeers or Robin Hoods who are standing up to the authorities
in the name of group solidarity.In the
past, Russian young people were interested in goths and emos; now, one
commentator says, “their idols have become prison personalities.”

The term AUE arose seven years ago
and has found in at least 18 regions of the Russian Federation, most far from
Moscow, according to an investigation conducted by Novaya gazeta (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/06/16/72816-strana-iz-treh-bukv).
In many cases, the authorities seem powerless against groups totally unafraid
of arrest or fighting with the police.

Both ordinary Russians in these
regions and some human rights activists and politicians are horrified by the
failure of the authorities to take action. They are calling for the suppression
of Internet videos that the groups use to promote themselves and recruit new
members and also for tough actions against these gangs.

In June, a Duma committee held a
hearing about AUE. Interior ministry officials sought to minimize the problem,
but representatives of the magistracy argued that the MVD doesn’t appear to
understand what is going on.

Igor Kommissarov, the vice president
of the Russian magistracy, suggested that the interior ministry people were
living in “a parallel world,” one that doesn’t reflect realities on the ground.
“I don’t know where you work, but you absolutely can’t imagine the situation which
is developing” in this regard.

Russian criminologists are divided
as to why the AUE groups have emerged. Some see them as a continuation of the
criminal subculture of the 1950s and 1960s, while others suggest there is “a
20-year cycle” of criminal activity, and Russia is simply living through a high
point of that curve just now.

But increasingly, Russian officials
are falling back on their usual argument to explain negative developments in
their country. They point out that “youth crime is widespread in many countries”
and that “analogues to AUE now exist in Latin America and the US,” as well as
in EU member states.